Forsaken Love
by hallyu
Summary: The Yondaime's Legacy's mask, an Uchiha missing nin, and forsaken love. Either ItaNaru, SasuNaru, or HinaNaru. PostChuunin Exams


Forsaken Love

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters but I own the plot.

A/N: I suck at updating, I need a beta and constructive criticism is welcome. Ita/Naru

Summary: The Yondaime's Legacy's mask, an Uchiha missing-nin and forsaken love. Post-Chuunin exams.

_"Prison gates won't open up for me  
On these hands and knees I'm crawlin'  
Oh, I reach for you  
Well I'm terrified of these four walls  
These iron bars can't hold my soul in  
All I need is you"_

_Nickelback, Savin' Me_

Chapter One

He paused, inspecting the clean cut made in the pale, long neck of the missing-nin, that slit the jugular vein in one graceful move. _Sound-nin, _he thought bitterly, pulling the hitai-ate decorated with the single music note with a long, horizontal slash through it wrapped tightly across the shinobi's pale forehead off and slipping it into his kunai holster. The gash was deep, but hardly any blood spilled from the wound. He hefted his kodachi in one hand and swiped it through the air, ridding it of any blood that had stained the blade and sheathed it beside the katana and wakizashi that were strapped onto his back. Silently, he made his way quickly through the forest, leaving the body behind. ANBU would probably clean up the mess-he knew because he _was _ANBU-and he was sure the shinobi had no bounty on his head, with such average taijutsu and below-average genjustu.

_But, _he thought sourly as he approached the Hokage Tower,_ My façade is just as pitiful as that man, maybe even worse. _He passed through the inner workings of the tower swiftly and soundlessly, unnoticed by all but he stopped momentarily to nod towards the secretary who sat faithfully behind the desk and wrote out an appointment for a very impatient civilian and the ANBU guarding the Hokage's grand office.

The guards let him in without hesitation and he shot them each a melancholic half-smile before entering the room. The Hokage was a busty blonde who snored away on her desk on some important looking files with a glass sake bottle (which he recognized as a very expensive kind) clutched in one hand. As usual, the large room looked smaller than it really was because of the stacks and piles of teetering papers and files that crowded the wooden floor and randomly placed tables. Tall cabinets lined the walls, many bottles of sake contained by glass doors.

He smiled softly before weaving between the precariously tilting files without a sound. He remembered his façade's pouting just a while ago because of the fact that he could never sneak up on the Godaime. _But, it's only the floor or the 'nightingale floor_' _that squeaks to alert_ _occupiers of the room to intruders, _he thought, placing a gentle hand on the sleeping woman's shoulder.

"Hokage-sama," he murmured, mildly amused when the supposedly dignified Hokage lazily swatted his hand away, mumbling and swearing under her breath before returning to a dormant state of sleep. "Hokage-sama," he spoke louder this time, but this time, she did not move. "Hokage-sama," he added the element of movement to his wakeup call and shook her shoulder gently.

"What?!" The Godaime threw a punch at the shinobi, who dodged gracefully and smiled softly, happy of success. "Oh," the sannin groaned, cracking her neck casually, "It's just you."

"You shouldn't be so lax, Hokage-sama," he watched as she discarded the sake bottle and opened the cabinet nearest to her and snatched a new one, "I could've killed you at least 100 times while you were sleeping."

The Hokage waved it off drowsily, "But you didn't, boy. And you wouldn't."

The tall shinobi chuckled softly, "Of course I wouldn't. But if I were an enemy shinobi, I would, Hokage-sama."

"Well," she mumbled, massaging her temples, "Thank the gods that you aren't. And didn't I tell you to just call me Tsunade, Naruto? After all, you are much more skilled than I am."

Naruto laughed again, louder this time and smiled, "But that's so disrespectful Hokage-sama. And the council would be scandalized to hear you say that _I _am so much more skilled than such a great sannin."

"Screw the council," Tsunade grumbled, drowning the contents of the sake bottle in one gulp, "I don't like that stupid title. And besides, it _is _true. So don't tell me that."

It was true. And both of them knew it. Ever since Naruto was a toddler, he created a mask to hide the pain from the villagers. A mask that showed an idiot who only wanted attention. So he created a 'split persona' who worked in his spare time. One that all the shinobi nations cowered in fear at. One that captured missing-nin and took S-class missions daily. One most commonly called Kage-shi or Shadow Death. Which was very appropriate since Naruto was amazingly quick and could move in the shadows like a Nara.

"You know," Tsunade murmured, reaching out to touch Naruto's tanned cheek, "You can drop the façade." Naruto flinched instinctively when her cool fingers touched his soft cheek and he gripped her wrist subconsciously. Tsunade pulled away and he let go of her slim wrist, eyes sad and lonely.

"I have obaa-chan, I have."

Tsunade was secretly relieved for the old use of such a disrespectful title, but she schooled her face into a pout and mock frowned at the shinobi, "Wow," she drawled sarcastically, "A 'split personality' which you revert to during your free time to do real shinobi work and make a name for yourself. I know you have that. But why don't you revert to the persona completely?"

Naruto frowned, running slim fingers through long, opaque locks, still under an elaborate henge that could not be seen through with even the Byakugan or the Sharingan. "That would make Sasuke jealous and then he'd go to that snake pedophile, blinded by the fact that the 'dobe' is so great. And then the council would get furious and I'd be thrown out. Whopee."

Tsunade sighed and opened yet another bottle of sake, "Don't worry about what that avenger thinks. Worry about yourself for once."

Naruto let his eyes drift towards the wooden floor, lips pressed into a thin line. Tsunade grimaced and sighed once again, "Well, why did you come here anyway?"

Naruto pulled the hitai-ate from his kunai holster and dangled it before the sannin-turned-Hokage, "Sound-nin."

Her eyes narrowed and she dropped the sake bottle roughly into the trashcan beside her desk and pulled the cloth and metal from between the shinobi's loose grasp, examining it closely. Naruto flinched minutely at the sound of the glass bottle shattering on metal bottom but murmured, "Quite ingenious. We can't accuse them of purposely sending 'missing nin' or else that starts war even though its obvious that the increasing amount of sound 'missing-nin' really aren't missing-nin." Ever since Sandaime's death and the end of the Chuunin Exams, an alarming rate of steadily increasing missing-nin, all from the sound, had been found outside the village gates.

"Yes," she sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose distractedly, "Yes, of course."

He gave her a half-smile and opened his mouth to speak, when his head turned towards the door. At that moment, the door opened and in came a familiar, sobbing pink-haired kunoichi followed by a bewildered pair of Chuunin, arms stacked with paperwork.

"Ts-Tsunade-sama!" Sakura stood at the front of the door, pink hair disheveled, pale face stained with tears.

Tsunade turned to where Naruto was standing-scratch that…had been standing-and stared at the empty space where the boy had once been standing at before shaking herself out of the reverie she had fallen. _Naruto is a S-class shinobi, of course he has enough skill to do things like this!_ She thought furiously before turning her attention back to the sobbing girl.

Sighing she directed the Chuunin and the genin in and signaled the pair to drop the paperwork they hefted. They complied gratefully and dropped the papers unceremoniously onto the floor beside them and rubbed their sore arms. Then, one of them - Izumo, she recalled suddenly - grabbed a chair and gently directed the crying girl into it. Her thundering sobs had slowed to a gentle shower of tears.

She waited until Sakura's tears had finally stopped enough for her to stutter out a comprehendible sentence and gently asked her, "What happened?"

This led to another round of fresh tears and when she had finally calmed down, she murmured, "S-Sasuke-kun l-l-left the vi-village last n-night. I tr-tried to stop h-him b-but…" She burst into tears once more and Tsunade chewed on her lip in mild annoyance. If the Uchiha had left, they would have to round up a team to retrieve him. They couldn't afford to left the Sharingan fall into the evil grasp of her former teammate's hands. And since the amount of missions had increased greatly since the Sandaime's death, the team would probably be composed of only genin and possibly a Chuunin or two. If she sent the team soon, there would be a lesser chance of them encountering dangerous foe and a greater chance of them bringing the Uchiha avenger back. The gears in her head turned and she barked out to the Chuunin couple, "What happened?"

Izumo grimaced and ran his fingers through his spiky hair before muttering, "We found her unconscious on a bench outside the East gates when we where coming to bring you this load of new paperwork-" at here, Tsunade grimaced and narrowed her eyes at the innocent piles of paper "-so we woke her up and took her here. Apparently, she had thought that he was going to go yesterday so she set out to stop him, thinking that true love would concur all. What a fool."

"Damn straight," Tsunade hissed, nervously fiddling with the edges of her blonde pigtails, "If she had just told us, we wouldn't be in this mess! The Uchiha would be under heavy surveillance and he wouldn't be gone!"

_Now I have to find a team that would be strong enough to bring back an Uchiha avenger under the power and influence of Orochimaru and his curse seal. And, knowing that snake-sannin, he probably sent a team of sound-nin to greet Sasuke and protect him the way back, also with curse seals of their own. What a headache._ She groaned at the thought.

"Izumo, take Sakura back to her house. Other guy, tell Nara Shikam-" She was cut off rudely when a figure suddenly appeared before her, head bowed. "What do you want?!" she growled furiously.

"Please, Hokage-sama. Allow me to take up this mission and bring back the traitor," came a cool, collected voice.

_Naruto?! _She thought, drinking in his appearance. He was wearing his ANBU uniform and gear, his ryuu mask set firmly in place on his face, the feral eyes gazing at Tsunade. _What are you thinking Naruto? What are you going to do? _

For a moment, she sat in silence before sighing yet again and stating in a slightly warm, yet defeated voice, "Just don't hurt him too much."

She could almost picture his animalistic grin behind that mask and she shivered mentally. He disappeared with what she finally realized was pure speed and she did one thing she swore to never to do again. She prayed for Sasuke.

TBC

You like? Review!

Yes, and if there are enough reviews, I'll change this to a Sasu/Naru or maybe a Hina/Naru, but **not **a Saku/Naru.


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